Deborah Swiss is the author of Women and the Work/Family Dilemma, Women Breaking Through: Overcoming the Final 10 Obstacles at Work, and The Male Mind at Work: A Woman’s Guide to Working with Men. Her work as a gender issues expert and consultant has received attention in Time, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and on The Today Show. Swiss holds her Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Harvard University and her B.A. magna cum laude from Bowdoin College. She consults nationally for major corporations and lives in Massachusetts.

Her most recent book is The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women. In the early nineteenth century, nearly 25,000 British women were shipped “beyond the seas” to harsh, remote outposts in Australia and Tasmania. They were viewed merely as property; yet they managed to not only endure their exile, but to thrive on their own terms. These survivors broke the chains of their bondage and forged a society that treated women as equals and led the world in women’s rights. Deborah first learned of history this while traveling in Tasmania in 2004. During a break from hiking, she met Christina Henri, a Tasmanian commemorative artist whose work honors the convict women and their children. Christina stood in line ahead of her in a post office in Launceston, Tasmania. Without knowing that Deborah was a writer, she turned and said: “I have a story I want to tell you.” For the next seven years, Deborah researched this story and built on the themes of her earlier books about society’s double standard for women and how gender often dictates life choices.

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On your website you describe yourself as a management consultant first, and then an author. When people ask what you do for a living, what do you tell them?

It depends upon who’s asking. Now that the balance of my time has tipped toward writing, I say that I’m an author. But of course if I meet someone interested in my conducting a workplace climate survey on gender equity or life balance issues, I immediately put on my management consultant hat.

You have a full-time career, a life as an author, and you‘re a mother to two children. How do you fit in time for writing?

I have no life balance once I’ve signed a book contract. My research takes over and propels me through many all-nighters and seeing many sunrises as I race to complete a chapter. The fact that I only chose subjects about which I feel passionately is key to my basically tuning out the rest of the world for months at a time. Like most writers, I rely on other work for my primary income so writing/research becomes both my hobby and disciplined obsession. (i.e., I can’t go to sleep until I’ve met a self-imposed deadline). I put writing on hold for a decade during the time in which my 2 children were heavily involved in activities. My son and my daughter have always been my first and most rewarding priority.

What does your daily/weekly schedule look like?

When I start a book, I schedule myself to do research (my favorite part of the process) or to write every single day, every weekend – no matter what, no excuses. My first drafts are generally pretty awful, (and my friends are not afraid to tell me) but once I start putting words on paper, I gather momentum as I work through missteps and false leads along the way.

It’s important to understand the arc of a story so, at the start I try to outline the entire book, although some chapters change dramatically when my research carries me in an unexpected direction. For example, I was unsuccessful at locating Janet Houston’s descendants until I was five years into the project. I finally resorted to looking for people in Tasmania with the last name of Janet’s husband. By sheer luck, the first person I telephoned was Janet’s great-great-granddaughter who offered some fascinating details about Janet’s life, including the fact that Janet’s grandson was named Charles Napoleon (Warrior) Bailey—a cheeky tweak toward British rule.

After I’ve written a few chapters, I seem to develop a bit of a rhythm and the words start to flow more easily. As the chapters start to stack up, the history begins to take on a life of its own with a unique voice that springs from the time period and the actions of the women who lived it. I try to identify with the people I’m writing about and look through their eyes at the situations they faced. Loving my subject makes it infinitely easier to stay focused and disciplined.

I’ve discovered that some of my best thinking takes place when I’m not trying to force things. I often find creative bursts after going for a brisk run or doing Pilates. As with other writers, sometimes the best inspirations come when I’m on the verge of sleep and my mind is relaxed. In that dreamy state, themes and ideas often pop into my head. I’ve learned to get up and write these thoughts down so that they’ll still be there in the morning.

Like most writers, I’ve mostly worked full-time while completing my books. I’ve pulled more all-nighters than I care to admit, tracking down obscure facts and sources, solving historical mysteries that would have kept me awake anyway, and re-working chapters again and again. Other writing rituals? I keep a steady stash of dark chocolate in the file cabinet right next to my desk!

At what point did you realize you wanted to be a writer, and how did you set out on the path towards that goal?

My mother tells me that at about age 12, I announced that I wanted to be a writer. As I recall, that was mainly due to the process of elimination about what I didn’t want to do with my life (e.g. my parents were both in health care and I have zero scientific aptitude). I remember summers in Newburyport when other children were playing sports outside and I was the only geek in the cool and quiet public library. The librarians were very kind to me because I was about the only child signed up for the summer reading challenge which I managed to win by default. I fell in love with my Shakespeare classes in college and have always been drawn to Charles Dickens. Writing is just hard work, and sometimes torture but I truly enjoy every single minute of the research, discovering paths I didn’t intend to take, being surprised by what’s in hand-written records and jumping for joy when the pieces of the research puzzle begin to fall in place.

My partner is a singer/songwriter so he totally understands my insane schedule and is fully supportive. When I come up for air between major book deadlines, I cook a vat of lasagna and invite a large group of friends over. My friends willingly read early chapter drafts and help with every phase of the book production process — it certainly does take a village!

With so many competing needs & desires (to excel at your job, to be a good parent, to be a successful author), do you ever feel like you’re getting all your needs met?

I wrote my first 3 books about contemporary women at work because so many unanswered questions were raised among my friends and colleagues, e.g. how can you find the best of both worlds, career and children? how can a woman best navigate a career in a male-dominated profession? while no book can answer these lofty questions, I met many wonderful folks who willingly shared their hard-won wisdom on these subjects.